I think the best place to start is at 7000 feet in the mountains of East Nepal. A place where you can drive for hours and hours and all you see is tea plants. I’ve done a lot since I last wrote so I’ll slowly but surely bring you up to speed.

The bus ride from Kathmandu to the tiny village we stayed was the single most epic journey I have ever been on. Forget the flight from Melbourne to London, forget 60 hour travel times to/from outreach, forget crazy taxis in India, THIS is the single craziest ride of my life. One of my contacts told us it was about a 16 hour bus ride so I told the team that etc. So we leave in the evening and head down a crazy winding road at full speed with sheer drop offs and no safety barriers. I would have been totally calm except that it quickly became night time and we didn’t slow down even a tiny bit and the bus driver had to keep on braking hard to avoid hitting people who were overtaking on the wrong ‘side’ of the road on a blind corner. 22 hours later we stepped off the bus, changed. The road was like driving on constant potholes and the seats were very thin with steel bars through them etc. and for the last 5-6 hours we were just winding through hairpin after hairpin climbing and descending hundreds of feet a minute, actually. The whole time at ‘top speed’ flying around blind corners on the wrong side and everything. Needless to say the ride back to Kathmandu at the end was just as epic.

Once we got there though I was taken back by how utterly breathtaking my surroundings were. Don’t worry, I took photos. It was also bitterly cold. The average temperature during the day was 5C (41F) during the day and a very fresh 0C (32F) at night. No heating, no hot water. It was actually quite a struggle for me. For the past year or more I had been in hot weather. Firstly a Melbourne summer (heavenly) then Hawaii, Panama then Hawaii again and my body was NOT used to cold. Even India was quite a pleasant temperature. I did get more used to it but only after buying much needed extra warm clothes.

The team and I both stayed at and taught at a school there. We taught a range of subjects from English to Science, Physics, Geology and Computers. It was a great chance to brush up on my atomic structure for the older kids and a chance to remember all about the layers of the earth and what factors make up an environment. I loved teaching, it was a great challenge to teach the children something so they could actually remember it instead of just being able to recite what their textbook said. We also painted one of the classrooms and a few other bits. Here’s a shot from the roof where the team always used to go for our time with God. My room is the one on the end!

We had an opportunity to preach at a number of village churches which was fantastic! There was also one day when the suspension on our jeep broke and I had to carry my guitar 25km (15.5mi) through the mountains. If that’s not true love I don’t know what is! On our way back to Kathmandu we stopped for a day to ride some elephants as an early debrief activity and it was so much fun! Elephants are the coolest animals!

In Kathmandu we did a lot of editing in order to finish all our various projects and we also did some evangelism. This included going to a famous park and with Ari, one of my students, we played worship music for over an hour which was amazing and got a reasonable size crowd as you might imagine.  Then we were done with ministry and spent a few days debriefing and reflecting on what God had done over the course of outreach and prayed for each other and generally had a great time as a family.

So what came out of all this you ask? As a result of our ministry in the mountains 19 people gave their lives to Jesus and joined the family!!  We also got to pray for a woman who was going to have to have a caesarian but instead the baby was miraculously born naturally without ANY complications!! We also were able to add to our Hope Through Hardship series. Below is the entire series (to date). I encourage you to take the time at some point to watch all of them because each person’s story is truly remarkable and was a tremendous encouragement to me as I was able to meet them and talk with them further.

After having a few hours in South Korea and Honolulu we made it back to Kona for the last week and it was a great time of catching up, praying into the future and after all the students graduated, sadly, goodbyes. I stayed back a few days with the other staff for our debrief and it was a great time of sharing what God had done in and through our teams not to mention I felt like I was at home hanging with family. Such an amazing bunch of people. Then it was on to Honolulu again for a day where I had the chance to go to Pearl Harbor. Somewhere I’ve wanted to go for a long time. I had a great time there and made a beeline for the aviation museum! Then back to Australia!!

Flying into Melbourne was a truly amazing feeling! Melbourne smells familiar, I know where I am all the time, there’s good coffee everywhere, my family are here and seeing them after a year and two weeks away was just amazing! My room looked strange and ever since I have been back I’ve had this strange thing called privacy… weird. I won’t lie, it hasn’t been easy being back, after a year of working 80+ hour weeks having nothing to do is a bit frustrating. I have picked up some shifts with my old AV company but I’m really hoping to use this as an opportunity to save some money so I’m praying for full time work. I’ve started going to a new church and I’m really loving it! It feels like home, the people there believe that Jesus is alive and kicking and have a passion to see Holy Spirit move and bring people into a relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m looking forward to making some good friends and using my musical and technical talents to serve there.

What’s next for me? Well I think I’ve made this quite long enough but my next update will reveal my plans for what I’m doing next!! Stay tuned!

PRAYER – for if you’re the praying type…

Answered Prayer

• Team India/Nepal
  • Wisdom in our projects – they are beautiful
  • For God to really move through us in a powerful way – 19 people came to know Him!
  • For health as we go all over Nepal – We’re all alive!
  • That we will finish well and be a huge blessing everywhere we go – had an AMAZING debrief.
• That I would grow even more and develop further in my leadership. – I learned SO much.
• That God would continue to work on me so that I continue to grow in my knowledge of Him and in leadership.

Prayer Points

• That God would continue to work on me so that I continue to grow in my knowledge of Him and in leadership.
• For full time work during my time in Melbourne
• Favour and blessing as I get plugged into my new church.

God bless you!